A government-led campaign began Monday to encourage more companies to introduce telecommuting, with hopes that letting employees work away from the office could help ease traffic congestion during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
Around 2,000 companies and organizations are expected to join the "Telework ...

The Abe administration will aim to double labor productivity growth to 2 percent in the three years through 2020 from 0.9 percent, the average for the five years through 2015, according to informed sources.
The government is set to include the target in a package ...

Feeling blue at work? According to Keio University professor Takashi Maeno, there are science-backed reasons explaining why workers may feel so distressed.
Maeno, the dean of the Graduate School of System Design and Management at the university, has used a scientific approach to study psychological ...

Looking for a job in Japan? You might want to start off by writing a resume by hand and using your hanko (personal seal) to prove its authenticity. If you actually get hired, you may need to get used to faxing documents to clients.
Japan ...

Feeling tired? Wish you had more time in your life? Got too much to do? I answer all three questions in the affirmative, and I am far from alone — in fact, almost everyone I know feels the same. The problem may be a ...

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has cut the number of workers on its turbocharger production lines west of Tokyo by more than 80 percent, as manufacturers from carmakers to electronics producers push further into automation.
Such advances explain why Japan's factory productivity growth ranked highest among Group ...

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. has a message for its staff this holiday season: Go easy on the sushi and sake.
Japan's second-biggest brokerage is encouraging its 13,600 domestic employees to eat and drink moderately for 30 days from Dec. 14.
While most Japanese don't celebrate Christmas ...

Customers are gods, as a saying goes in Japan, where staffers press buttons for shoppers in department store elevators and hotel porters line up to bow to guests.
While Japan is revered for this hospitality, or omotenashi, all that bowing and scraping may be sapping ...

Japan's future prosperity will depend on improving its lagging productivity, says a report by McKinsey Global Institute that urges companies to boost competitiveness by better use of their workers.
Japan's population of about 127 million began declining in 2011 and proportion of elderly people is ...